Local clerks refute Trump's claims of election-rigging

Westland City Clerk Richard LeBlanc and Deputy Clerk Sue Hoff are confident in the integrity of the election in their community. The secure area voting where machines are stored is accessible to five people. Before the move to the new city hall, election machines were stored off-site in a warehouse.(Photo: Bill Bresler | staff photographer)Buy Photo

On Monday, presidential candidate Donald Trump campaigned in Florida. As he has over the past several weeks, the billionaire businessman told potential voters the Nov. 8 general election is “rigged” in favor of opponent Hillary Clinton.

Local election officials beg to differ. They say many people work hard to preserve the integrity of the vote in Michigan and that too many checks and balances are built into the system for fraud – or a giant-scale conspiracy – to succeed.

“I have a great deal of confidence that our election will be fair, transparent and certainly not rigged,” Northville Township Clerk Sue Hillebrand said. “Michigan has a very good system.”

“That undermines the whole process,” he said, “because we are striving to make sure all votes count.”

Wayne County municipalities use optical scan equipment, along with paper ballots. Voters fill in ovals next to the candidates of their choice on a ballot that has been assigned to them. After completing the ballot, they then feed it into an optical scan reader that counts their vote.

According to Westland Clerk Richard LeBlanc, a strict process is followed before the first voter casts their ballot.

It begins with testing of voting equipment that’s done in public, he said. Once testing is completed, the state of Michigan’s qualified voter file is loaded into the software system. LeBlanc said equipment is then stored with mechanical seals at a secure location.

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The machines that read and record the ballots are sealed before the polls open and are not unsealed until the end of election day.(Photo: Bill Bresler | staff photographer)

Equipment stays stored until the day before the election, when crews deliver it to Westland’s 42 precincts. On Election Day, poll workers test equipment, such as the optical scanners, to make sure they are “zeroed out,” LeBlanc said.

Election inspectors at each precinct must then sign off to certify that all equipment is functioning properly.

“Everybody in Wayne County has the same system we do,” LeBlanc said. “There are so many checks and balances. It’s too full of integrity to be compromised.”

Clerks are expecting a 65- to 70-percent voter turnout next month. Absentee ballots, they say, are being cast at record rates.

She noted that the computer system is not connected to the Internet, meaning it can’t be hacked. Hillebrand said her staff updates voting rolls daily of people moving in and out of the township to preserve accuracy.

That’s not to say that problems can’t arise. In Redford Township, for example, the clerk’s office received about a dozen absentee ballots in the mail from other communities Monday.

“They’re having trouble this election,” Clerk Garth Christie said of the U.S. Postal Service.

Proper staffing at precincts can be dicey, too. Redford has had to deal with shortages in two prior elections this year, resulting in longer lines at the polls for voters. Christie doesn’t expect similar trouble during the general election.

“All of our training sessions have gone very well,” he said, “and we have enough people – if they show up on Election Day.”

Redford has thus far sent out 4,300 absentee ballots. Christie said approximately 3,600 have been returned, which he thinks will help thin lines at the precincts.

Despite these issues, he believes the voting system is sound.

“It’s the best system possible in terms of integrity and checks and balances,” Christie said.